Geeky News for Lawyers

I was doing interviews at MILOfest (Macs in Law Offices) conference. I had FinalCut X installed on my late 2010 Macbook Air and, over the course of the afternoon sessions, I got to watch the progress meter slowly churn on an 8 minute clip and still not finish. Previewing and editing lower thirds was positively painful. Everything might have been ok if I had not tried to re-render the clip (even using the proxy media setting).

I know, I know, I’m trying to use a heavy-duty app on an underpowered machine. So, despite the much greater editing, titles, audio, controls, I found myself going back to my iPhone for some rapid-fire, gonzo, video editing.

Here are tips for splitting clips, tricks with titles, and making video editing on the iPhone with iMovie doable.

Pinch and Zoom the timeline

Touch interfaces have a lot of gee whizz! However, fine editing on a small screen isn’t ideal; especially when you are dealing with small clips. Well, don’t sweat it! If you need finer control, use the two finger expand gesture to expand the clip.

Cool iOS trick. You can slide the notification to unlock your screen on iOS devices (iPhone or iPad) to unlock your screen and go directly to the app.

Got a Facebook notification? Slide left to right (just like the unlock bar) and your phone goes directly to the Facebook app. Same for other types of notifications. Of course, if your phone is locked, sliding the notification icon will take you to the unlock screen first, and then to the app.

iOS 5 comes with text expansion. You can type “omy” and your iPhone and iPad will type out “On my way.”

Sure, you could use the widely available Text Expander app. However, one benefit of iOS “Shortcuts” – what Apple calls its expansion system is that it is system wide. This lets you use snippets, er shortcuts anywhere on your iOS 5 device.

Turn on Shortcuts in Settings > General > Keyboards. Click the “Add New Shortcut” button to add a snippet.

Type in the full phrase you want your iOS device to type, and the shortcut (the abbreviation).

Emoji, those Japanese pictograms, are built in with iOS 5. So, you no longer have to buy a separate app. However, they are not turned on by default and they are pretty well hidden in the iPhone or iPad settings.

iOS 5’s new iMessage SMS-like app service lets you send messages without a SMS plan. Huzzah! This is double-plus-good since AT&T has eliminated their $5 for 200 texts and $10 for 1,000 texts plan.

iMessage, a new app launching as part of iOS 5, will offer iPhone, iPad and iPod touch owners unlimited free messaging over Wi-Fi and 3G networks.

The New York Times reports that the forthcoming service is being perceived as a threat to mobile operators. iMessage and other similar services will allow smartphone users to rely on existing data plans and Internet service for text messaging functionality, thereby avoiding having to pay for high-margin SMS plans from wireless operators.

SMS, MSS (photos, etc) are supposed to work in iMessage. HOWEVER…. iMessage only works with iOS devices and Macs. Ohhh… So close! So if you send a lot of texts to non-iOS users, you may still need a SMS plan. That or WhatsApp (hint-hint).

UPDATE: If you have installed iOS 5, you may be wondering where the mysterious iMessage app is? Well, the Messages app is iMessage. Or more accurately, the Message app uses the iMessage service to send free messages.

One thing to keep in mind is that your SMS service will be used as a backup is iMessage is not available. So, if you cancel your SMS service, you may get surprise in your monthly bill! Fortunately, you can set up the iOS Message app to only use the free iMessage service (instead of SMS through your carrier). Read the rest of this entry »